The role of people's movements in making Parliament 'for the people': Recent experiments in India

Abstract

People's movements and social activists associated with them have actively participated in the debates and discussions on the role of representative institutions. The people's movement's opposition to policy measures that are anti-people in nature has paved the way for new thinking on democracy. There has been both, sometimes, convergence and divergence between parliament and people's movements on the question of governance and welfare from the beginning of new economic policy in India. This paper summarises the trajectory of convergence and divergence between parliament and people's movements on certain issues in the last two decades. Also, it looks at why the role of people's movements should be taken into consideration in the process of developmental efforts to be made by the parliament. The prime objective of this paper is to explore the efforts of people's movements in democratising the process of policymaking.